Hello everybody, August is just right around the corner. Do you know what’s the most important day for us, Indonesians, in the month of August? That’s right, it’s Indonesia’s Independence Day, at the 17th of August to be exact. This date is usually called HUT RI by Indonesians which stands for Hari Ulang Tahun Republik Indonesia, which means Republic of Indonesia’s Birthday. At the moment, Indonesia has been free from invaders for 75 years and that makes this year’s 17th August the 76th year of Indonesia being free from invaders since 1945.
Indonesians always celebrate this day with competitions that have been developed since their freedom which gives them traditional characteristics, like panjat pinang - a competition where the competitors compete by climbing a pine tree covered with grease in which at the top of the tree lies many rewards. Or like kerupuk eating competition – a competition where a kerupuk (a type of cracker) is hung on a string and the first competitor to finish it without the use of their hands wins. And many more traditional competition.
However, since the era of globalization, the competitions have evolved. Nowadays, Indonesians also celebrate their Independence Day with modern competitions like MOBA tournaments, Tiktok dance
competitions, creative video competition, and so on. This may be unusual for Indonesians 5 or 6 years ago, but it has made more sense coming into a disastrous year like 2020. Since the worldwide pandemic started, these competitions were played more by the society of Indonesia than ever before. This is caused by the amount of people needed to play the traditional competitions. Traditional competitions require huge crowds to cheer the competitors or else it wouldn’t be as fun. This causes the traditional competitions to not be played nor attended as many as the years before which then leads to Indonesians needing to find new ideas for online competitions. This is obviously not easy as online competitions are not as festive as offline traditional competitions. However, that’s what we have to deal with to end this pandemic sooner than later.
These unwanted events may cause newer generation Indonesians to lose their culture in the future as they may not have played any traditional Independence Day competitions before (if born between 2018- 2022). We really hope this won’t happen and we encourage Indonesians to keep staying at home and keep taking care of their health to end this pandemic soon so that newer generation Indonesians wouldn’t have to lose Indonesian culture. We wish you a happy Independence Day on the 17th of August 2021. Happy 76th birthday, Indonesia!
Written by : Nathanael Melvyn, XI MIPA 4
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